The website of the International Criminal Court announced on March 17 that the Second Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court issued a report to Mr. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alexeyevna Livova on the situation in Ukraine. Ms. Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova issued an arrest warrant.
The International Criminal Court wrote:
Mr. Vladimir Vladimirovich-Putin, born October 7, 1952, President of the Russian Federation, responds to war crimes of illegal deportation of population (children) and illegal transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia Federal war crimes. The crimes were allegedly committed in the occupied territories of Ukraine from at least February 24, 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Putin bears personal criminal responsibility for the above-mentioned crimes. (1) Those acts were carried out directly, jointly with and/or through others. (ii) Under superior responsibility, he failed to exercise adequate control over the civilian and military subordinates who were under his effective authority and control to commit these acts or permit them to be committed.
Ms. Maria Alexeyevna Livova Belova, born on October 25, 1984, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, accused of war crimes of illegal deportation of population (children) and deportation of population ( children) from the occupied regions of Ukraine to the Russian Federation for war crimes. The crimes were allegedly committed in the occupied territories of Ukraine from at least February 24, 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Ms. Livova-Belova is personally criminally responsible for the above-mentioned crimes, as she committed them directly, jointly with and/or through others.
Ukraine: This is just the beginning
Ukraine’s presidential palace on Friday welcomed the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, presumed responsible for war crimes of “deporting” Ukrainian children, AFP news agency reported in Kiev, March 17.
“This is just the beginning,” Andriï Iermak, head of the Ukrainian presidency, said on a Telegram group.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba hailed “the wheels of justice are turning” on Twitter. “I commend the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Livova Belova,” he added. The latter “is Putin’s commissioner for children”. These “international criminals will be held accountable for child theft and other international crimes,” he added.
Russia has been accused of illegally transferring Ukrainian children from territory occupied by Moscow forces in Ukraine.
At a meeting in the Kremlin on Feb. 16, Ms Livova-Belova herself told Mr Putin that she had “adopted” a child from Mariupol, the Ukrainian city that was taken over in the spring of 2022. It was ravaged before the conquest by Russian troops.
Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office hailed it as a “historic decision”.
“International leaders will think twice before shaking his hand,” Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriï Kostine said in a statement regarding Putin.
With the decision, “the world has changed”, said Mykhaïlo Podoliak, adviser to the Ukrainian president. “This is the beginning of the end for Russia in its current form on the international stage,” he tweeted.
